


Going Solo

by FollowTheFirefly



Category: Persona 3
Genre: F/M, Slow Burn, Takes place during the typhoon in September
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-21
Updated: 2016-05-21
Packaged: 2018-06-09 21:54:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6924901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FollowTheFirefly/pseuds/FollowTheFirefly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Akihiko waits up for Mitsuru when she goes out during the typhoon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Going Solo

**Author's Note:**

> I sort of imagined this to be another version of what happened after Makoto sort of passed out during the typhoon in September. And I always imagined Mitsuru and Akihiko being quite close growing up, which in my mind explains why she can be a bit more relaxed around him. I'm planning on making a companion piece for this one, but I'm quite pleased with how this turned out.

“What do you mean, Junpei’s not here? I thought we’d decided that he’d stay in the dorm tonight!”

“Well, apparently he felt that it’s more important to be with Chidori right now.”

“In the middle of the biggest typhoon we’ve ever seen?”

It was no use. There was no way that he could concentrate with all the noise outside his door. Throwing down his pen in frustration, Akihiko got up from his desk, leaving his biology notes behind, and stomped over to the door, throwing it open to find Shinjiro and Yukari glaring at each other with Aigis observing the situation.

“Hey, you mind keeping it down a bit?” Akihiko snapped. “Some of us are trying to study, you know.”

“But with Makoto sick, we thought we’d try to sort out some stuff in case we lose power tonight,” Yukari told him, hands on her hips. 

“And since our leader clearly needs his rest, shouldn’t you be a bit quieter?” Akihiko felt compelled to say.

Yukari scowled at Shinjiro, but fell silent.

“Didn’t Mitsuru say that she and Fuuka had set some lights and candles out in the kitchen this morning?” Akihiko remembered the girls doing something in the kitchen, though he couldn’t recall what it was exactly.

“I observed no such items earlier this evening,” Aigis noted as the group moved closer to the lounge area near the staircase so they wouldn’t wake Makoto.

“They left them in one of the cabinets, Aigis,” Yukari explained.

“But where’s Mitsuru, anyway?” Shinjiro asked. “I thought she’d be back tonight.”

“Maybe she got caught in the storm?” Yukari suggested anxiously.

“But why would Mitsuru-san be outside in a typhoon?” Aigis questioned, leaning against one of the vending machines.

“She told me that she was going out with some guy from our class,” Akihiko tried to sound indifferent.

“Wait, Senpai’s on a date?” Clearly Yukari hadn’t heard about this.

“Jealous?” Shinjiro’s eyes were on his friend.

“Wh-why would I be jealous?” Akihiko stammered.

“Because you have shown signs of jealousy on past occasions such as this,” Aigis stated a little too bluntly.

“Thank you, Aigis,” Akihiko glared at her.

“He’s being sarcastic,” Yukari said, seeing that Aigis had opened her mouth to comment on this.

“Look, it’s not like that,” Akihiko was struggling to keep his composure. 

“You sure?” Yukari didn’t seem convinced.

“Of course!” Akihiko exclaimed.

A loud crack of thunder sounded overhead and the whole hall went dark. Downstairs in the kitchen, Koromaru started barking, clearly asking the humans and Aigis what was happening.

“Koromaru-san is confused,” Aigis translated for everyone. “He wants to know why it suddenly went dark.”

“I’ll go get him,” Shinjiro sighed.

“Be careful,” Yukari called after Shinjiro as he made his way down to the first floor of the dorm, hands on the wall for some leverage. 

“Well now what?” Akihiko complained. “Its dark and the flashlights are downstairs.”

“In hindsight, we really should have kept some of them up with us,” Yukari sighed. “Too late to do anything about that now.”

They heard a softer set of footsteps on the stairs and before long, they saw Fuuka carrying a flashlight with her as she stepped onto the second floor.

“Power’s out,” she felt compelled to say.

“You don’t say?” Akihiko rolled his eyes. 

“Do humans have a difficult time with the darkness?” Aigis asked Yukari.

“Well, Aigis, she isn’t carrying the flashlight as a prop,” Yukari had pulled out her phone and was trying to use the screen as a light source. “Darn it, this isn’t working.”

“Fuuka, didn’t you and Mitsuru bring the flashlights down to the kitchen?” Akihiko asked the smaller girl, watching as she sat down next to Aigis on one of the couches.

“We put them in on one of the tables at the end of the hall,” Fuuka answered. 

“If only we could use Ken’s Persona,” Akihiko observed. “Hama skills would be pretty useful right about now.”

“The light from Hama-“ Aigis started to say. 

We know it won’t work,” Yukari cut her off. “Hey Aigis, you can’t double as a lamp, can you?”

“No, I cannot,” Aigis said.

“Go figure,” Yukari slumped back against the couch.

“Has no one heard from Mitsuru-senpai yet?” Fuuka asked the group. “Did she make it back?”

“I guess she told you?” Akihiko assumed.

“While we were preparing the kitchen this morning,” Fuuka nodded.

“She’s not back yet,” Shinjiro came back up the steps with Koromaru trotting along behind him, looking quite happy to be with his human companions. This time he brought back flashlights and started to distribute them to those without.

“Shall we send out a search party?” Aigis prompted.

“No, she’ll be fine,” Shinjiro slouched against the wall next to the window. “But where’s Ken? I thought he was with you, Fuuka?”

“Oh, I was helping him with some homework upstairs when the lights went out,” Fuuka replied, tapping her foot lightly on the ground. “He said he wanted to stay in one spot, so he stayed in the lounge up there.”

“Smart kid,” Shinjiro said. “And I just got a text from Junpei over at the hospital while I was with Koromaru. He said that he and Chidori are okay.”

“Is he going to stay there until the storm’s over?” Fuuka asked.

“Sounded like it,” Shinjiro bent down to pet Koromaru on the head.

“And Makoto is still sleeping in his room,” Aigis added. “I checked on him before I heard Shinjiro-san and Yukari-chan arguing.

“That just leave’s Mitsuru-senpai…” Yukari said slowly.

“I’ll go down and wait for her,” Akihiko said. “I’m not going to get any studying done at this rate.”

“Okay, but come get us if anything happens,” Shinjiro said as Akihiko started walking towards the staircase.

“Got it,” he waved over his shoulder.

He’d been in the living room in the dark before, but there was something different about this sort of darkness. Maybe it was the tension from the typhoon or the claps of thunder with lightning strikes outside that made it seem spookier than usual.

“Yukari said there were candles in the office…” Akihiko remembered a conversation he’d had with Yukari earlier that day. “It might be a good idea to get a little more light in this place.”

After fumbling around the office for ten minutes while he searched through desks and cabinets, he finally found a large box of candles in various sizes, colours, and scents. There were also some blankets inside one of the cupboards, probably for a power outage during a storm.

“She’ll probably want these, too,” Akihiko grabbed some of the fleece blankets along with the box of candles with a nearby lighter and carried them all to the living room, setting them down on the floor by the couch. “Geez, its only September, but its freezing in here.”

He arranged the candles in a circle on the table, taking care not the let anything flammable get in the way.

“Coconut? Mango watermelon? Tobacco and sandalwood? Who in the world decided on these?” Akihiko read off the scents of the candles as he pulled them out of the box. “Cucumber spice, mountain mist, sunny ocean view? Okay, I’m done trying to figure these out.”

He grabbed the lighter and lit the candles one by one, the room growing brighter with each candle.

“Geez, it’s going to smell weird down here,” Akihiko sighed. “Why do I have a feeling Yukari bought some of these? Though I’d hope she’d have better sense than to buy one that smells like leather and oranges.”

Within minutes, he had a nice circle of candles lit on the table. Taking a minute to admire his handiwork, Akihiko sat down on the couch, wrapping himself up in one of the blankets. 

“Now all that’s left is to wait for her,” Akihiko tried to remain objective about the situation. Mitsuru certainly knew how to take care of herself, but he knew the typhoon wasn’t all he was worried about.

Maybe there had been some truth to Shinjiro’s words.

Almost two hours had passed and Akihiko had to swap out a few of the low-burning candles for replacements when Mitsuru finally returned. He’d never seen her so royally pissed in his life and if he hadn’t known better, he might have tried to help.

Instead, he let her stand there for a few seconds, dripping wet and attempting to get as much of the typhoon off of her as she could. She stepped out of her high-heeled boots, taking away quite a few inches, and discarded her coat, throwing it to the side. Only then did she speak.

“I’m okay.”

“Man, if I didn’t know better…” Akihiko had to smile. It was pretty amusing to see Mitsuru so out of her element.

“Oh hush,” Mitsuru sighed.

“Hey, I managed to find some blankets earlier,” Akihiko stood and tossed her one, taking care not to get it caught in the circles of candles on the table. 

“Thanks,” she wrapped it around her shoulders, shivering slightly, and trudged over to the sofas, wrinkling her nose and the stench from the candles. “Was Shinjiro trying to cook in here?”

“Actually, he and Fuuka made some good pasta earlier,” Akihiko said, sitting next to her on the couch.

“Shinjiro and Fuuka?” Mitsuru wasn’t sure if he was making a joke or not. 

“Yes, believe it or not,” Akihiko nodded. “You’re probably smelling the candles.”

Without a word, Mitsuru carefully leaned forward to look at the candles using Akihiko’s flashlight to read the lables.

“Jasmine blossom? Teakwood and lemon balm? Grapefruit ginger pear? Bacon?!” She seemed surprised by the last one. “Why do we even have a bacon scented candle?” 

“For the same reason why we have one that smells like musk and rain dew?” Akihiko had to guess. “Honestly, I think Junpei might be the culprit.”

“No wonder why it smells so strange in here,” Mitsuru leaned back against the couch.

“So can I ask how it went?” Akihiko asked hesitantly.

“How what went?” Mitsuru brushed her bangs out of her eyes in annoyance.

“Well, you said you were going out with Mori, right?” Akihiko said.

“Oh, that,” Mitsuru sighed. “Yes, it was a bit of a disaster.”

“That bad, huh?” Akihiko frowned.

“Well, when he started the night by saying, ‘you know I’m gay, right?’, things really don’t go up from there,” Mitsuru went on.

“Wait, he’s gay and you still went out with him?” Akihiko reached over and put his arm around her, noticing that she was still shivering a little.

“It was meant to be more of a study date and a bit of a real one,” Mitsuru explained. “Apparently his parents want him to get a girlfriend and he’s getting tired of hearing about it.”

“That’s got to be rough,” Akihiko noted. 

“So we just studied for a while,” Mitsuru concluded. 

“In the middle of a typhoon,” Akihiko reiterated. 

“We finished a few hours ago, but I stayed a bit longer to see if the storm would let up a bit,” Mitsuru explained. “Really, the whole night was pretty boring.”

“So you’re still going solo?” Akihiko used the term they’d come up with in middle school.

“Looks like it,” Mitsuru nodded. “Why, were you jealous?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Akihiko hopped that she wouldn’t pick up on how his voice was a little shakier than normal. “I was just worried. I wanted to make sure that you got home okay and didn’t get swept away by the typhoon.”

“Trust me, I know how to handle myself,” Mitsuru retorted, letting her guard down for a rare moment as she rested her head on Akihiko’s shoulder. “And I figured that you’d be up to have our usual post-date discussions.”

“When did we start doing that, anyway?” Akihiko asked.

“Probably in middle school when you went out with Kotone that one time,” Mitsuru smiled at the memory. “After I had to patch you back together again, remember?”

“Hey, she never told me that she already had a boyfriend,” Akihiko said defensively. “Or that he was Nobumaru from the next year,” He cringed and said, “The guy was like a tank.”

“You certainly complained a lot after that. I was certain that Shinjiro was going to smack you if you had gone on about it any longer,” Mitsuru glanced up at him. “And how could I not ask after you came home with that great gash across your face. I’m still amazed you didn’t break an arm.”

“I guess I got off lucky,” Akihiko said.

“But in all seriousness, thanks for waiting up,” Mitsuru told him. “Especially since the power is out and I don’t have a flashlight with me.”

“Don’t mention it,” Akihiko answered. “We’ve stayed up waiting for each other before. He put his hand on her knee and said, “And don’t worry, there will be better dates than this one.”

“If you could even call it that,” Mitsuru managed to smile a little. “But I could say the same to you.”

“You heard about Kana?” Akihiko and his girlfriend of two months had decided to split up.

“Fuuka told me this morning,” Mitsuru sat up straighter. “I thought you liked her?”

“I do, but there’s someone else I would rather be with, “Akihiko said. “It wouldn’t be fair to string her along like that.”

“No, I suppose not,” Mitsuru frowned. “But still, I’m sorry that it didn’t work out.”

“Thanks,” Akihiko nodded once.

“But you won’t tell me who this is?” Mitsuru figured that she might as well try.

“Not gonna happen,” Akihiko shook his head.

“Well, it was worth a shot,” Mitsuru shrugged.

They sat in silence for a while, Mitsuru eventually drifting off to sleep while Akihiko watched the flames from the candles flicker in the darkness. He kept debating about telling her, but it really wouldn’t change anything. Maybe they both needed to go solo for a bit longer.


End file.
